If a baseball and bat cost $110, and the bat costs $100 more than the ball, how much does the ball cost?*

I got $10. How in the world one could get $5 out of this question is beyond me. Where is the indication that this question would imply otherwise?

Calling on Minus.

So, are you religious? :lol:

Todd

04-29-2012, 02:32 AM

I got 5, which nicely aligns with my lack of religious beliefs.

Jesse

04-29-2012, 02:56 AM

I got 5, which nicely aligns with my lack of religious beliefs.

Yes.

HypnoToad

04-29-2012, 02:59 AM

I almost said $10, but then re-read it more carefully. Math has never been my strong point.

minuteforce

04-29-2012, 03:17 AM

A baseball and a bat = $110.

x + y = 110

The bat costs $100 more than the ball.

x = y + 100

y + y + 100 = 110

2y = 10

y = 5
This is how I thought it out as well.

I don't think religious belief or lack thereof is at all relevant, though

Vriska

04-29-2012, 06:52 AM

This is how I thought it out as well.

I don't think religious belief or lack thereof is at all relevant, though

It's not math though, it's analytic thinking, which in my experience is most atheists, including myself, give as a reason for their beliefs. Religion comes from emotional values, not logical ones. You can't debate a strongly religious person into being rational with their beliefs. They will cling onto them no matter what you say to them, no matter how many times you shown them where they contradicted themselves. I have tried over the span of many years before I found out the fundamental difference between them and I. Once you have a person interested in deriving happiness through finding the genuine (actually rather complicated) truth, rather than settling for the first so-called truth that their neighboring society told them, they will have a much more open mind........ which leads them to listen to new ideas, which makes them more likely to accept those ideas if it holds up logically (eg, not religion).

travz21

04-29-2012, 07:15 AM

Atheists pick and choose when to be logical, though. Like with politics, for example. There's plenty of evidence around the world of atheists being illogical.

Vriska

04-29-2012, 08:44 AM

Atheists pick and choose when to be logical, though. Like with politics, for example. There's plenty of evidence around the world of atheists being illogical.

No one is perfectly logical. It takes constant effort and time to devote to being logical, and perfection requires that nobody drops this for a second. What you're aiming for is being more logical, as much as you can with your own ability. Atheists that didn't convert into athiesm (eg, they learned it through their parents, or belong to a religion that happened to be atheistic) didn't have the massive weighing of options that those that did. And people who are forced to make snap decisions don't have the option to think things through analytically. Snap decisions don't even have to be on a moment to moment basis, a snap decision could be taking a few months to decide something that should have taken years. I don't see large sections of any religion have belief systems devoted to rationality like secular humanists and similar groups do. Nobody does it perfectly, but few people even prioritize rationality in the first place. Almost all religions are against it, with a few cases being loudly and explicitly against it.

There's also the matter of whether or not it's worth it to expend the energy being rational with a person. Some people will never appreciate your patience with them, and eventually you will learn that it's better to just snap at them, rather than trying to play their manipulative game of trying to waste your time. There are rational people who just decide to not play that card. And also there's the matter of dunning-kruger effect, in which it is frequent that people who accuse people of being illogical are also frequently the same people who don't know the first thing about logic. They don't know that they don't know.

The main point is that being logical is a difficult goal. All anyone can do is try and have the right attitude about it, and train themselves to be on their game more often than not. It's just that few groups even teach that idea to start with. Most religions just teach to follow them and copy them, not to think.

Jesse

04-29-2012, 07:59 PM

Asked five members of my family the question, they all said $10 and are really religious.
I asked five atheists and they had the correct answer.

Also posed the problem to an atheist forum, very few skeptics got this wrong so there may be something to this after all.

Lee

04-30-2012, 07:50 AM

Got $110, and I'm atheist. But I'm also an 8th grader. But I'm good at math (says my teacher) and I don't get the $105. I get confused easily though...

EDIT: Ooooh... Now I get it.

The Joesen One

04-30-2012, 12:25 PM

I'm not an atheist but I got it immediately. As I said, #6thgradeproblems.